Facebook Removes Fan Pages Celebrating Santa Barbara Killer

Facebook is taking down “fan pages” glorifying Santa Barbara mass murderer Elliot Rodger, including a page called “Elliot Rodger is an American Hero,” reportsUSA Today.

Still, the widely-condemned pages, celebrating Rodger for killing six people and himself near UC Santa Barbara on Friday, continue to pop up on Facebook despite the site’s best efforts to shut them down.

At first, those who “flagged” the “American Hero” page were reportedly sent a message from Facebook saying that the fan page’s content did not violate the site’s user policies, but a Facebook spokesman said that was an error, and the company took the page down as soon as they could.

YouTube has also reportedly taken down Rodger’s disturbing online videos, although a company spokesman told Mashable that videos posted in a “news context” will be allowed to remain on the site.

At press time, a search for “Elliot Rodger” on YouTube returns about 77,200 results.